Pandemic

Okay, we seem to be headed towards an Avian Flu Pandemic. Essentially, it is believed by the healthcare community that the deadly Bird Flu will soon cross with human flu and that this resulting mutation will sweep across the world and kill many millions of people. (A pandemic is a world-wide outbreak of infectious disease likely causing many deaths, whereas an epidemic is an outbreak on a smaller and less harmful scale.)

This issue was brought back to my attention, I should say, today when my landlord showed me a copy of a document sent to a friend of hers at the hospital, which addresses the upcoming pandemic and the nation-wide steps the health department is taking, rather secretly, to prepare for it. And ‘secretly’ I say as on the document it stipulates that all information on this issue is to be filed with the proper persons in the health care department, and then before the government, who in turn decide when and how to address it to the public. She told me she has teacher friends of hers who have known about this as well; an old elementary school where I had spent many unhappy childhood memories has been chosen to be one of the local morgues when this pandemic occurs (it sits right next to a cemetery anyway.) Many people are expected to die, and at least our healthcare system is preparing for it. What of our government, I do not know, as they, like the media, have been pretty quiet about this when considering the magnitude of the issue.

A little info:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6861065/

Imagine a flu worse than any you have known in your life, and imagine that all your friends, and family, and neighbours, and coworkers may get this virus and die from it. Imagine what happens before this event of constant death, when people avoid work and meetings to protect their families from it. Imagine how the culture will be devastated and confused in the disarray of the system. Of course we need to think positive, we will desperately need our sanity and spiritual connection to get us through this thing. We need to begin to prepare, with spiritualism and practicality, for the plausible trial soon to come upon us. It will test us in many ways, and we must follow our hearts and follow our beliefs through these difficult times. Our governments should also be preparing. Look what happened with New Orleans, and how its government practically abandoned it! Canada could have helped them days before if they had not been refused due to political issues. It was mass hysteria in that town, the system broken around them, panache ensuing. Make no mistake, a pandemic can have the same affect. Just look to the Dark Ages to see how mental illness can spread. We need to be positive, but we need to face the very real possibility of a new pandemic which experts feel is nearly upon us.

Here is a site expressing much concern:

http://revcom.us/a/023/avian-flu-pandemic-world.htm

Here is the American Red Cross trying to prepare people for a pandemic, without saying it’s the Bird Fly per say that they’re talking about:

Well, the Bird Flu is likely to become the first pandemic of the 21’st century, according to US Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt as he toured Southwest Asia in an attempt to prepare for the expected global epidemic. So there do seem to be measures being taken, but I think it would be nice to know what they are. The media should be looking deeper into this for us, but then again, perhaps there isn’t much more to know at this point…